Candidate reference method: Determination of valproic acid in serum by isotope-dilution mass spectrometry

Quantitation of valproic acid in pharmaceutical preparations using dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction followed by gas chromatography-flame ionization detection without prior derivatization

Dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction (DLLME), coupled with gas chromatography-flame ionization detection (GC-FID), has been successfully used for the extraction and determination of valproic acid (VPA) in pharmaceutical preparations. In the developed method, an appropriate mixture of extracting and disperser solvents was rapidly injected into an aqueous sample. Having formed a cloudy solution, the mixture was centrifuged and then the extracting solvent was sedimented at the bottom of a conical test tube. The extract was then injected into a GC system directly, without any further pretreatment. Initially, microextraction efficiency factors were optimized and the optimum experimental conditions found were as follows: tetrachloroethylene (9.0 µL) as extracting solvent; acetone (1.0 mL) as disperser solvent; 5 mL acidic aqueous sample (pH 1) without salt addition. Under the selected conditions, the calibration curve showed linearity in the range of 0.1-5.0 mg/L with regression coefficient corresponding to 0.9998. The limit of detection was found to be 0.05 mg/L. Finally, the method was applied for the determination of VPA in two different pharmaceutical preparations. A reasonable intra-assay (3.9-10.8%, n = 3) and inter-assay (5.6-11.4%, n = 3) precision illustrated the good performance of the analytical procedure. The protocol proved to be rapid and cost-effective for screening purposes.

Direct determination of valproic acid in biological fluids by capillary electrophoresis with contactless conductivity detection

Capacitively coupled contactless conductivity detection (C(4)D) is a new technique providing high sensitivity in capillary electrophoresis (CE) especially for small ions that can otherwise only be determined with indirect methods. In this work, direct determination and validation of valproic acid (VPA) in biological fluids was achieved using CE with C(4)D. VPA is of pharmacological interest because of its use in epilepsy and bipolar disorder. The running electrolyte solution used consisted of 10mM 2-(N-morpholino)ethane sulfonic acid (MES)/dl-histidine (His) and 50microM hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide (HTAB) at pH 6.0. Caproic acid (CA) was selected as internal standard (IS). Analyses of VPA in serum, plasma and urine samples were performed in less than 3min. The interference of the sample matrix was reduced by deproteinization of the sample with acetonitrile (ACN). The effect of the solvent type and ratio on interference was investigated. The limits of detection (LOD) and quantitation (LOQ) of VPA in plasma samples were determined as 24 and 80ng/ml, respectively. The method is linear between the 2 and 150microg/ml, covering well the therapeutic range of VPA (50-100microg/ml).

High sensitivity determination of valproic acid in mouse plasma using semi-automated sample preparation and liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometric detection

A high-throughput liquid chromatography/electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry (LC/ESI-MS/MS) assay using automated sample preparation has been developed for the determination of valproic acid (VPA) in mouse plasma. A liquid-handling system was programmed to prepare calibration standard solutions in plasma, as well as quality controls and clinical samples. Plasma protein precipitation was performed on a 96-well plate, and the collected supernatant was directly injected into a reversed-phase LC/ESI-MS/MS system in the negative ionization mode. The calibration curve for VPA was linear over a dynamic range of 0.15-100 microg/mL. The limit of detection was 75 ng/mL and the lower limit of quantitation was 150 ng/mL. Intra- and inter-day validation assays of the semi-automated plasma analysis showed satisfactory accuracy and precision.